November 20, 2008
Should we know presidential candidates' genomes? permlink
Category: Genetics
That's the question being asked at The Personal Genome. Over at Genetic Future Dan "The Man" MacArthur notes the difficulties which might emerge if we start engaging in widespread embryo screening. So how exactly is the average American voter going to interpret the myriad of genes responsible for only a small fraction of phenotypic variation?
I'm not sure that genetic data adds much value for the body politic. I would want to know, but, I would also take SAT scores and college transcripts before I'd be interested in a candidate's genetic sequence. Our president elect has not, for example, released his academic record.
Posted by Razib at 4:08 AM•1 Comments
November 19, 2008
The Lost White Civilization of China permlink
Category: History
The Dead Tell a Tale China Doesn't Care to Listen To:
An exhibit on the first floor of the museum here gives the government's unambiguous take on the history of this border region: "Xinjiang has been an inalienable part of the territory of China," says one prominent sign.
But walk upstairs to the second floor, and the ancient corpses on display seem to tell a different story.
One called the Loulan Beauty lies on her back with her shoulder-length hair matted down, her lips pursed in death, her high cheekbones and long nose the most obvious signs that she is not what one thinks of as Chinese.
Read on »
Posted by Razib at 1:24 AM•11 Comments
November 18, 2008
Immigration & DNA testing permlink
Category: Genetics
Refugee program stayed after feds confirm fraud:
DNA testing conducted earlier this year by the government to verify blood ties between anchor refugees and their supposed family members revealed that fewer than 20 percent of those checked could confirm their biological relationships, the fact sheet stated.
Doesn't matter how high "paternity uncertainty" is in a culture, this is just way too high a number.
Posted by Razib at 11:51 PM•0 Comments
Correlation between wine quality and price negative? permlink
Category: Culture
A new working paper, Do More Expensive Wines Taste Better? Evidence from a Large Sample of Blind Tastings. After some regressions:
In sum, in a large sample of blind tastings, we find that the correlation between price and overall rating is small and negative. Unless they are experts, individuals on average enjoy more expensive wines slightly less. Our results suggest that both price tags and expert recommendations may be poor guides for non-expert wine consumers who care about the intrinsic qualities of the wine.
You already know this, but can't hurt to repeat in these times when we are all aware of the economic reality of scarcity.... (H/T Robin Hanson).
Posted by Razib at 11:22 PM•8 Comments
Vote for Obama vs. % black in county (all states) permlink
Category: Politics
Andrew Gelman has a post up which reports an analysis of the votes for Obama by county as a function of the black percentage. In chart below the circles are counties where size is proportional to turnout.
Read on »
Posted by Razib at 6:58 PM•3 Comments
The mists of the adaptive fog permlink
Category: Evolution
Richard Lawler pointed me to a new paper by Sean Rice, A stochastic version of the Price equation reveals the interplay of deterministic and stochastic processes in evolution. The Price Equation is the generalization of selective evolutionary dynamics by the amateur evolutionary biologist George Price which so impressed W. D. Hamilton. But as Rice notes it only captures a slice of the various parameters which influence evolutionary processes. Like some other papers I've pointed too Rice presents some relatively counter-intuitive results, or at least results which confound our general expectations, by scratching beyond the surface of the assumptions of conventional population genetic models:
Read on »
Posted by Razib at 1:42 AM•0 Comments
Down with historical whiggishness! permlink
Category: Culture
A few days ago I suggested that it is folly to expect Europeans would elect a person of color to their highest office when so few Europeans are persons of color. Today in Slate a piece basically suggests that Americans should not be so full of themselves, Only in America? The wrongheaded American belief that Barack Obama could only happen here:
People are still amazed he won. In a country where more than a few white folks would still say outright that one of "them'' shouldn't be in charge, here was a politician who didn't downplay his ethnicity, his foreign-sounding name, or his father who wasn't even a Christian. And he wasn't just ethnically atypical. He'd made himself a member of the country's meritocratic elite. He wrote real books that really sold. That blend of outsider detachment and obvious ambition drove his earnest enemies crazy.
So they attacked him as doubly strange, both "not like us'' and elite. They claimed you could not trust this man, that he was unknowable, unreliable, a snob, and a toff. They ridiculed the seal he'd contrived for himself, with its Latin motto meaning, roughly, "yes, we can.'' These same rhetorical ploys did not keep Benjamin Disraeli (motto: "forti nihil difficle''; literally "nothing is difficult to the brave'') from twice becoming prime minister of Great Britain during the reign of his good friend Queen Victoria. So could we Americans stop patting ourselves on the back about the supposed uniqueness of our electing Barack Obama president?
Read on »
Posted by Razib at 12:01 AM•5 Comments
November 17, 2008
A synthetic unerstanding of the past permlink
Category: Evolution
Ancient DNA, Strontium isotopes, and osteological analyses shed light on social and kinship organization of the Later Stone Age:
In 2005 four outstanding multiple burials were discovered near Eulau, Germany. The 4,600-year-old graves contained groups of adults and children buried facing each other. Skeletal and artifactual evidence and the simultaneous interment of the individuals suggest the supposed families fell victim to a violent event. In a multidisciplinary approach, archaeological, anthropological, geochemical (radiogenic isotopes), and molecular genetic (ancient DNA) methods were applied to these unique burials. Using autosomal, mitochondrial, and Y-chromosomal markers, we identified genetic kinship among the individuals. A direct child-parent relationship was detected in one burial, providing the oldest molecular genetic evidence of a nuclear family. Strontium isotope analyses point to different origins for males and children versus females. By this approach, we gain insight into a Late Stone Age society, which appears to have been exogamous and patrilocal, and in which genetic kinship seems to be a focal point of social organization.
Posted by Razib at 9:33 PM•0 Comments
Cosmic Variance "sells out" permlink
Category: Blog
Chad has a post up about Cosmic Variance's move to Discover Blogs. He notes that some people lamenting the decline of the "old blogosphere" haven't been around blogs that long. He doesn't mention that he's been blogging since 2002. So have I. Most blogs have always sucked, that's a constant. Some of the less-sucky ones now have the option of remuneration. With four major competing scienceblog networks I think you'll get some competition driving quality. Granted, a great deal of blog writing will remain crap; just like a great deal of the media. The laws of the universe have not changed. And the "good old days" were not really that good.... (e.g., the "warblogging era," where I was unfortunately a marginal player).
Posted by Razib at 2:05 PM•6 Comments
Slouching toward foreign autos.... permlink
Category: Culture
Here is a chart from Jim Manzi:
I added a trendline of GDP growth in the United States from 1995-2006 to suggest the general economic climate. As they usually don't say: the fundamentals are not strong. Matt Yglesias makes a pointed, if admittedly somewhat unfair, analogy:
Read on »
Posted by Razib at 1:09 PM•1 Comments
You're sick because of your genes! permlink
Category: Genetics
Kambiz's review (pointer) to the Humanity's Genes an the Human Condition conference made me aware of Jean-Laurent Casanova's research. His general idea seems to be that heightened susceptibility or death due to infectious disease is in large part a function of inter-individual genetic variation. Among the young this is due to Mendelian genes of large effect, whether it be dominant or recessive (higher frequency among those who are the product of cousin marriage). For the old he suggests that it might be due to QTLs of small effect, just like schizophrenia. To some extent this is a revision to the germ theory of disease; pathogens are necessary, but not sufficient, and operationally they are close to ubiquitous. The general model is laid out in this paper, From monogenic to multifactorial predisposition: the example of infectious diseases:
Read on »
Posted by Razib at 4:33 AM•0 Comments
Numbers and the auto industry permlink
Category: Culture
If Detroit Falls, Foreign Makers Could Be Buffer:
"You would have an auto industry in the United States more like that of Mexico and Canada: foreign-owned," said Sean McAlinden, chief economist at the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich., which describes itself as a nonprofit organization that has "strong relationships with industry, government agencies, universities, research institutes, labor organizations" and other groups with an interest in the auto business.
Like Canada! Now that's scary. Here are some interesting numbers from the piece:
Read on »
Posted by Razib at 12:00 AM•7 Comments
November 16, 2008
New Star Trek Movie Trailer permlink
Category: Blog
Look below the fold, don't know how long it will be around (H/T Ross Doutht).
Read on »
Posted by Razib at 11:42 PM•3 Comments
Chad Orzel & Jennifer Ouellette on bloggingheads.tv permlink
Category: Culture
Posted by Razib at 2:14 PM•0 Comments
Where have English Americans gone? permlink
Category: Culture
Elsewhere, I reiterate the common sense case that the decline in the proportion of Americans who are of "English" ancestry over the past 30 years from 22% to 9% is mostly a function of changed questionnaires and cultural preferences.
Posted by Razib at 3:33 AM•4 Comments
Sydney Brenner to fat people: you're a criminal! permlink
Category: Genetics
Kambiz attended the Humanity's Genes and the Human Condition, and he reports some interesting goings on. Sydney Brenner, Nobel Laureate 2002, had this to say this about human evolution:
Starts off with a zinger: "Biological evolution for humans has stopped." Uhh, really Sydney? You better do better than that. He uses an analogy about how if we feel cold, we don't 'adapt' we just kill an animal, skin it, and wear its pelt as evidence of relaxed natural selection.
I wonder if this the malevolent influence of Steve Jones, but I doubt it. But that wasn't the weird stuff:
Read on »
Posted by Razib at 12:43 AM•6 Comments
